TREATMENT
THE treatment of influenza is as various as its forms. the best preventive is a to keep well-fed, well-clothed; to avoid well-fed, well-clothed; to avoid chilling, wetting, and exhaustion in any form, especially over-fatigue, or going too long without food. Many remedies have been recommended as prevalent in every
I do not advise the use of either. In my experience the best preventive is Arsenicum. Six pilules of Arsenicum in the No. 3 strength should be taken three times a day when the epidemic is about.
What about going to bed? In severe cases this question needs no answer-the patient simply cannot stay up. But i a number of others the patient has strength enough to keep going on-is be to do it? Wherever there is a doubt it should be decided in favour of bed. It is true many persons have fought through an attack without seeming top take harm from it; but wherever there is any delicacy of constitution, or where an internal organ has become inflamed, delay in going to bed is attended with great danger. Every case must be decided on its own merits.
The routine practice should be: Rest in bed, with hot bottles to feet if they are cold; light nourishment, as gruel, beef-tea mutton broth or chicken tea, or milk diluted with boiling water, every two or three hours. this should be kept up till the fever goes, and the tongue becomes clean, and the appetite returns. As soon as the patient can eat, he should have all the nourishment he can be got to take.
With regard to baths, the caution given in an earlier chapter must be emphasized here. complete baths are to be avoided, and blanket baths only are to be allowed.
That is to say, the patient is to be rolled in a blanked sponged with hot water in detachments, each part being dried with a hot towel before another is washed. A complete bath should not be indulged in till recovery is complete; many a relapse has been occasioned by neglect of this rule.
MEDICINES.
I have already mentioned that Arsenicum is the best prophylactic medicine I know. The nearest to a specific for the disease is Baptisia. It has all the symptoms described about in the classical type; the general aching and soreness, heavy head besotted appearance loaded tongue sore throat, and fever,- and if n o other reedy is clearly indicated in preference, I should give Baptisia every hour.
It is effective in all attentions I prefer the 30th; but others have used the 0 tincture with success, and all dilutions between. For general practice one or two drop doses of the 3x is perhaps the best.
Among other medicines may be named the following, with their leading indications:-
Aconite-Sharp fever; dry skin; great restlessness; depression; anguish; sense of impending death. No. 3, one or two drops or six pilules every hour
Belladonna-Intense throbbing headache, highly flushed face, tendency to delirium; thirst, sore throat. Facial neuralgia and earache, especially sight side. No.3, every hour.
Bryonia-where the least movement of any kind aggravates the symptoms. No3, every hour.
Rhus tox.-The opposite of Bryonia The patient cannot keep still; has to move about to relieve the otherwise intolerable pains. here the attack has been proved by getting wet. No3, every hour.
Gelsemium-Where paralytic symptoms predominate, especially of the lower limbs. Intense headache; strong full pulse; giddiness. No.3. every hour.
Phytolacca-Specific when the throat is inflamed and spotty, the glands externally being hard and tender. No.3, internally, every hour, and a gargle of the tincture-ten drops to a teacupful of water. the gargle may be used every four hours.
China-when the headache is accompanied by giddiness and noises in the ears. In one case this kind I relieved patient-who was driven to the verge of madness by this symptom- in a few minutes with China 30. and no other medicine was required.
In the CHRONIC EFFECTS OF INFLUENZA AND RESULTING DEBILITY careful constitutional treatment is required, and each case must be treated by itself. there are, however, a few remedies which may be usefully mentioned here.
Natrum salicylicum, No.3, every two or four hours, has relieved many cases in which symptoms of vertigo, with noise in the head, have remained after influenza. Patients to whom I given it have so frequently praised its “tonic” effect that I have given i (and with great success)where the debility has been the leading symptom, and no head symptoms have been complained of. sulphur, Arsenicum, and Natrum mur. will be frequently required, according to indications already given.
In the profound prostration, with loss of flesh, which every four hours, has proved a very efficient remedy in my experience. finally, where there is great chilliness, debility that compels the patient to lie down, sinking sensation and general prostration, Psorinum 30, three or four times a day, will give great relief.
ACONITE.- Suitable for a cold from the commencement and during the first two days. Influenza.
Symptoms-Chills and heats, sneezing coryza, headache. In influenza: sharp fever, dry skin, great depression, and intense restlessness and anxiety.
Dose-No 3, one drop or six pilules every hour.
AGARICUS-To correct tendency to colds.
Symptoms-chilblains; nervous twitching; indolent circulation; in persons of light hair and lax fibre; inclined to be fat feel worse in the night; in cold air;during repose; before a thunderstorm.
Dose: No.6, two drops o six pilules three times a day.
ARSENICUM-For acute or chronic colds. Also in hay fever nd influenza, both as a prophylactic and in the treatment of the disease when indicated by the symptoms.
Symptoms-Thin, irritating nasal discharge hot, burning sensation in nose and eyes; burning thirst; red tongue; anxiety; restlessness; prostration; fever; headache; sleeplessness. Better by warmth.
Dose: No.3, two drops or six pilules every two hours. As a prophylactic, twice day.
BAPTISIA-Almost specific in influenza.
Symptoms- Pains all over and general soreness; restlessness; drowsy; besotted expression; catarrh; sore throat, headache.
Dose:No.3x, one or two drops every hour.
BELLADONNA-Influenza.
Symptoms- Intense throbbing headache; highly flushed face; sore throat tendency to delirium, neuralgia of face, and earache.
Dose: No.3, or two drops every hour.
BRYONIA-Influenza.
Symptoms-Pains all over, aggravated by the least movement.
Dose: No 3x one or two drops every hour.
CALCAREA CARB-Suitable for chronic colds and for correcting the tendency to colds. Also for Polypus.
Symptoms-The leuco-phlegmatic temperament; acidity; internal chilliness; coryza. chiefly dry, nostrils sore; Polypus; margins of eyelids sore. Aggravation of symptoms morning and evening, from cold water and cold air.
Dose: For chronic cold, No.6, two drops or six pilules every two hours.
For correcting tendency, No.1, two drops or six pilules three times a day.
CAMPHOR-At the very beginning o a cold before the chill has passed off. Camphor was recommended by Hahnemann as a remedy for Russian influenza, and has been used with good effect in the recent epidemic, when the initial chill has been great and attended with great prostration.
Dose: One camphor pill, or one drop of Rubini’s tincture on sugar, every fifteen minutes until reaction sets in.
CARBO VEG-For correcting tendency to colds.Symptoms-Low vital power; venous engorgement, giving the skin and complexion a blue appearance; blue cold hands and feet; aggravation in warm damp weather.
Dose: No.1, two drops or six pilules three time day.
CEPA (Allium cepa)-Acute colds.
Symptoms-Fluent coryza; tightness at root of nose; constant sneezing;pain in back, and chills; melancholy, anxiety restlessness. Worse entering warm room from cold air better out of doors.
Dose: No.3, two drops or six pilules every two hours.
DULCAMARA-Extreme sensitiveness to damp cold, blocking o the nose, with a discharge which the least cold air stops again dryness of the mouth without rest; amelioration during movement. Dose:No.6, two drops or six pilules every two hours.
GELSEMIUM-In acute colds. Influenza.
Symptoms-Creeping chills up the back; fullness of the head; heat of face; fullness over root or nose; sneezing; fluent coryza; restlessness at night, with drowsiness and languor.
The fever remits, passing off without perspiration and recurring again. With the chills there is profuse flow of urine with relief to the head. Aggravation of symptoms by warmth of bed; after midnight; in damp weather; and from change of weather.
Dose:No.1, one drop or six pilules every hour.
HEPAR-Acute and chronic colds when Mercurius is indicated but fails to act, or where the patient has been overdosed with mercury formerly.
Symptoms-When each draught of air produces a fresh cold or a headache, the cold affecting one nostril only, and the headache being made worse by movement.
Dose: No.6, two drops or six pilules every two hours.
HYDRASTIS-For chronic colds.
Symptoms-Much thick discharge from the posterior part which leads to the throat; mucus dropping down into the throat; in catarrhal condition; tongue yellow-coated;constipation; all-gone “sinking” sensation at epigastrium.
